Speaker 1: What if I told you the secret to financial freedom
Speaker 1: is a trade.
Speaker 2: That's actually really really You're onto something here, you know.
Speaker 3: It makes me think of my good old makeup days.
Speaker 3: I've since retired the brushes, but baby, they took me
Speaker 3: a long way.
Speaker 4: Dead Ass.
Speaker 5: Wow, it all started with real talk, unfiltered, honest and
Speaker 5: straight from the heart. Since then, we've gone on to
Speaker 5: become Webby award winning podcasters in New York Times bestselling authors.
Speaker 2: Dead Ass was more than a podcast for us. It
Speaker 2: was about our growth, a place where we could be vulnerable.
Speaker 6: Be wraw orse, but most apportly be us.
Speaker 3: But as we know, life keeps evolving, and so do we,
Speaker 3: and through it all, one thing has never changed. This
Speaker 3: is ever after, because we got a lot to talk
Speaker 3: about story time.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna take y'all back to June two thousand
Speaker 1: and two. I believe it's June two thousand and two.
Speaker 2: Yes, Oh that's way back.
Speaker 6: Yeah, this is just way back. This was before you
Speaker 6: and I even.
Speaker 3: Time every episode I felt, so this is June two
Speaker 3: thousand and one.
Speaker 1: I was going back and forth to Hofstra for I
Speaker 1: was trying to earn a scholarship.
Speaker 4: I was partial scholarship.
Speaker 1: I was a senior in high school, going back and
Speaker 1: forth for spring ball, and it was the end of
Speaker 1: spring ball, and it was finally they called my dad
Speaker 1: and was just like, YO, got some good news for you.
Speaker 1: I was like, what's up. He's like, Yo, your son
Speaker 1: just earned a full scholarship. The hostra before I got there.
Speaker 1: So I'm excited. It's like good day, Like everything's happening.
Speaker 1: My dad comes home and comes home from work and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, what's up with you? You look kind
Speaker 1: of out of it. He's like I just got laid off.
Speaker 1: Was like, what from Chase Bank.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 1: At the time, I was a senior in high school.
Speaker 1: My brother was a sophomore in high school. My sister
Speaker 1: was going to Bishop carniy High School, and I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about Dane, at least you.
Speaker 4: Don't got to pay for my scholarship.
Speaker 1: But I'm like, my brother's going to be going to school,
Speaker 1: and my sister is in high school and she has
Speaker 1: a tuition, So I'm thinking about all of the things
Speaker 1: that my father has to pay for. And I remember
Speaker 1: he looked at me and he was just like, I
Speaker 1: ain't worry though, God will provide, And I remember looking
Speaker 1: at him like, I don't think it worked like that,
Speaker 1: Like at some point you got to do something like
Speaker 1: this is what I'm thinking. Then I watched my father
Speaker 1: for the next two weeks. He was studying, and I'm like, yo,
Speaker 1: what are you studying for? He was like, you know,
Speaker 1: for medical sales and insurance, they use coding the same
Speaker 1: coding he has, in order to put those into their system.
Speaker 1: So he was studying how to do that so that
Speaker 1: he could, you know, do medical sales or help with insurance.
Speaker 1: And I was just like for he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is why I got my associates degree. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, doing mainframeing is like a trade. They're always
Speaker 1: going to need somebody like me, so I always have
Speaker 1: a job. And he was literally hired two weeks later
Speaker 1: to do main framing for another company called sun God,
Speaker 1: And at that moment, it was just kind of like, Yo,
Speaker 1: my dad only has an associate's degree, never been to
Speaker 1: a four year school, and it's always made over what
Speaker 1: made six figures because he had a trade that was necessity.
Speaker 1: And I was like he was always on.
Speaker 2: The sounds like it. He'd be like, you know, you know.
Speaker 1: Bro, my father got laid off twice from Chase Manhattan
Speaker 1: Bank once and then afterwards from sun God.
Speaker 6: Both times he just walked out jolly.
Speaker 2: Here, like I didn't want to go anyway the house.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I was in college and I'd be like, oh, school,
Speaker 1: and he'd be like, yeah, what's up?
Speaker 6: And I'm like, why are you whispering?
Speaker 4: Like I'm at work.
Speaker 6: I'm like, why are you whispering at work? And I'm
Speaker 6: at the movies?
Speaker 3: What do you want in the middle of the day.
Speaker 2: Work from home was a thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, literally, And he always made really good money. And
Speaker 1: then here's the funny thing about having the trade. When
Speaker 1: you get hired as a consultant for that trade, you
Speaker 1: get played. You get paid two point five x.
Speaker 4: Absolutely so, because he was.
Speaker 1: A main frame consultant and they were hiring all of
Speaker 1: these people to come from different parts of the world
Speaker 1: to take over his job, they spent two years of
Speaker 1: having him train them on how to do his job,
Speaker 1: and he got more.
Speaker 6: Money training them than he did work in the job.
Speaker 1: And at that point, that's when I was like, I
Speaker 1: got to get to that level of trade where you're
Speaker 1: an expert and you can two point five extract.
Speaker 2: There you go, all right, that was not all right.
Speaker 7: You took it?
Speaker 4: Did go ahead?
Speaker 3: You have it scar time. And I saw you over
Speaker 3: here practicing and rehearsing. I got a whole situation going
Speaker 3: on out here.
Speaker 1: I wasn't practicing and rehearsing, but I wanted to get
Speaker 1: I wanted to get the lyrics right because the lyrics.
Speaker 3: Oh, well that's the first I mean tearing the lyrics
Speaker 3: up me too. You got bar trible. We got it
Speaker 3: wrong yesterday? What Oh yeah, wasn't Bill Withers. Oh it's
Speaker 3: Bobby called well by my bad Bobby that I guess
Speaker 3: you wonder where't that's crazy because you said Bill Withers
Speaker 3: in the moment and I was like, yeah, Bill Withers,
Speaker 3: and I'm like.
Speaker 7: I was thinking that too. I was feeling like, I
Speaker 7: think that's wrong.
Speaker 3: It wasn't until after midnight, I think last night did
Speaker 3: in the kitchen and I was like it.
Speaker 2: Was Bobby called Jackson.
Speaker 3: I was like, google us for me and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: my bad, so my bad Bobby.
Speaker 4: It wasn't yesterday, it was last week.
Speaker 2: We didn't record all the week.
Speaker 7: When I'm editing it, I'm gonna just record myself saying
Speaker 7: Bobby called.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 4: I know what this was. This was Bobby. The videos
Speaker 4: gonna be completely different. Clothes be at home.
Speaker 2: No, we cut to Josh's face or Matt's face.
Speaker 7: My face saying Bill Withers. But then you'll hear me saying.
Speaker 2: It'll be like watching Netflix.
Speaker 1: Exactly, like watching it be like watching to be They
Speaker 1: don't be caring, bro, Baby.
Speaker 2: The audio won't be in sync with the lips.
Speaker 1: Nah, the people, the actors be completely different. The wigs
Speaker 1: be different. The gunshots, y know, they had one where
Speaker 1: the bullet went around the tree.
Speaker 4: Did y'all see that?
Speaker 8: Wanted?
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it wasn't like it wasn't the great technology.
Speaker 1: You know, the ones that they throw the bullet and
Speaker 1: who comes around and you see the bullet in slow motion.
Speaker 1: And I've seen the club on social the dude shot
Speaker 1: straight and the person was behind the tree, and then
Speaker 1: you see the bullet come out in slow motion. Then
Speaker 1: you don't follow the bullet, but you see the person
Speaker 1: at the tree like and then you see a bullet
Speaker 1: just go through the front of their head.
Speaker 4: Like I love it. I don't know, man, I'm like,
Speaker 4: I'm just indifferent. I love the the fantasy of it all.
Speaker 4: It's not polished. It's like, have we watched Bollywood movies?
Speaker 4: Of course he's watching.
Speaker 2: Yeah those are my people.
Speaker 6: Yeah that's your family.
Speaker 4: But yeah they be having crazy like action scenes in
Speaker 4: the Bollywood movies. Man, they be like like going down
Speaker 4: the road and like a kid will be in a
Speaker 4: kid will be in the road here, like the guy
Speaker 4: would like jump off the bike and go around this way.
Speaker 4: The bike could go this way.
Speaker 8: Yes, but it's better.
Speaker 4: Yeah it might be. They said, Yeah, they've been doing
Speaker 4: it for like twenty thirty years. Man, we got some
Speaker 4: You got to catch your work.
Speaker 2: To do what you got for karaoke.
Speaker 1: So this is what I got for karaoke. All right,
Speaker 1: I'm going to say these words and to see who
Speaker 1: can remember the song once I say the tone, y'all.
Speaker 6: Going to know it. I ain't kept the real from
Speaker 6: the jump.
Speaker 4: Oh man, who's this Kendrick? Living at my mama's house
Speaker 4: with every month I was.
Speaker 6: Trying to get it on my own, working all night, truffing,
Speaker 6: going away home and my uncle calling me like.
Speaker 4: I gave you the king, so you bring it right back, nigger.
Speaker 1: Butther thing is looking up the lyrics and it's crazy,
Speaker 1: like you know, you're getting old that you got to
Speaker 1: look up to the lyrics because Drake has had so
Speaker 1: many songs since then. But that was one of my
Speaker 1: favorite songs.
Speaker 3: Started starting from the bottom, now we're here started.
Speaker 4: That was a that was a bop, that was what
Speaker 4: was that hard sixteen?
Speaker 8: Let's fact check.
Speaker 4: That's one of his most relatable songs.
Speaker 1: I think the twenty twelve, to be honest, I think
Speaker 1: I could be twenty.
Speaker 2: Thirteen years nothing. I do remember the song though, and
Speaker 2: I know who sang it this.
Speaker 7: Time, Drake.
Speaker 4: So let's take a quick break.
Speaker 2: All right, we're gonna do that.
Speaker 6: Come backus getting it out the mud.
Speaker 2: That's it. But before that, stick around for op or
Speaker 2: no op paddles.
Speaker 3: Ready, y'all, we're back with ov or no app, no
Speaker 3: APPV or no OD true.
Speaker 2: What do you have for us today?
Speaker 7: All right, Well, Josh had a really nice ME and
Speaker 7: Josh had a conversation about a video earlier this morning.
Speaker 2: I'm nervous.
Speaker 7: I know this one isn't as bad. Sometimes Josh can
Speaker 7: be profound, you know when he's on the podcast. Sometimes
Speaker 7: he just sounds like an idiot. But he's a smart guy.
Speaker 4: Is he awful?
Speaker 7: He uses his brain. So there's a woman who self
Speaker 7: published a book, and apparently she gave this book to
Speaker 7: her family two years ago and for her birthday, they
Speaker 7: always go to brunch at a restaurant, and she told
Speaker 7: them about some big news that she had to share.
Speaker 7: Can we watch the video?
Speaker 2: Would love to, you know, And.
Speaker 7: So I want you to stop right here, can pause it.
Speaker 7: You see this lady in the orange, I don't know what.
Speaker 7: She hasn't stopped eating the entire time.
Speaker 1: I noticed that she's watching something food, watching something.
Speaker 7: She's got her iPad up to.
Speaker 3: Wow, the restaurants have like the little menu as an iPad. M.
Speaker 7: There's another one.
Speaker 3: There's another one yet that's a restaurant.
Speaker 2: Yes, Or she's watching the commercials that they show.
Speaker 7: Yeah, they have games on those things.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I'm not going to help. I don't know.
Speaker 7: This young lady posted this video and the Internet was
Speaker 7: kind of in a tizzy about this lady who just
Speaker 7: doesn't seem to care at all. She's eating her brunch
Speaker 7: while everybody else is just waiting for the announcement to
Speaker 7: be over. So I'm I'm wondering, op er no op
Speaker 7: on this. The Internet congratulated this woman on her book
Speaker 7: and getting accepted into grad school, and you know they
Speaker 7: thought people should have paid more attention and gave her
Speaker 7: more props. She also said that she gave this book
Speaker 7: to her family two years ago, but she doesn't think
Speaker 7: anybody even read it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I can tell you nobody.
Speaker 7: I want to know, what do you think about this scenario?
Speaker 7: Op or no app?
Speaker 6: So I got, I got, I got two ops.
Speaker 1: The first OP is congratulations on writing a book, so
Speaker 1: publishing and going to Scotland. The second OP is when
Speaker 1: we all go to brunch, that's not a time for
Speaker 1: you to occupy everybody be hungry.
Speaker 8: And that's what it looked like.
Speaker 4: It was good and I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: We can have this after I'm done eating, But make
Speaker 1: your speeches at the right time. And was here and
Speaker 1: it's hot, Like don't you trying to make no thirty
Speaker 1: minute speeches? She was talking wile long, like I'd have
Speaker 1: been too, I'd have been looking like, come on, son.
Speaker 2: She was trying to save rhythm moment.
Speaker 7: It's probably not even piping hot when it came out and.
Speaker 4: All the time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you could have said that while we were waiting.
Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying, right, Maybe it's not a
Speaker 1: popular opinion, but that's how I like.
Speaker 2: So so my my op or question.
Speaker 3: Rather, I'm wondering, was she upset with the reaction she
Speaker 3: got from her family or was it the audience upset
Speaker 3: for her?
Speaker 7: You know what I'm saying, I think the uset.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it makes me think about how many times something
Speaker 3: may happen to you and you can be perfectly fine
Speaker 3: with whatever that interaction was, but then people come behind you.
Speaker 2: You didn't see that, how'd you feel about that? But
Speaker 2: look at the way she said that, she didn't even
Speaker 2: look up from her meal, And.
Speaker 3: Then it becomes an issue that didn't have to be
Speaker 3: an issues because you didn't feel the way everybody else
Speaker 3: felt away, and now you feel like you're inclined to feel.
Speaker 4: A way exactly.
Speaker 7: That's most issues. Yeah, exactly, absolutely. I mean I deal
Speaker 7: with this all the time. I have a lot of friends,
Speaker 7: a lot of family, and one of my friends listens
Speaker 7: to this podcast on a regular basis, and it's.
Speaker 2: Just one getting friends, just one, right.
Speaker 7: But it's like my other friends don't listen to podcasts
Speaker 7: or it might not be interesting for them. I'm not
Speaker 7: offended by that. It's like, you know, they support me
Speaker 7: regardless in other ways. But if it's not interesting to them,
Speaker 7: they're not the audience for it. I'm not expecting them
Speaker 7: to listen to every single episode.
Speaker 4: I agree.
Speaker 7: So, and the friend who listens to it, it's like
Speaker 7: the person you at least expect. It's my white bestie
Speaker 7: who had but she has three kids and she's married
Speaker 7: and so the.
Speaker 6: Topics I expect that.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's it's very they're very interesting and relevant to
Speaker 7: her life, right, So you know, but I don't, you know,
Speaker 7: I don't get offended by that, and I don't think
Speaker 7: other people should. I actually hate the rhetoric when you're
Speaker 7: like if your friends don't support your business or your
Speaker 7: friends at all, Like does your business really apply to
Speaker 7: your friends?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Does something with your business for your audience?
Speaker 4: Right, my friends don't support me, My family don't support me,
Speaker 4: like or they're.
Speaker 3: Looking for a discount, you know, friends of family discount.
Speaker 3: But what if she's also the person who is always
Speaker 3: the overachiever in the family, So her making this announcement
Speaker 3: is like all right, girl, well you like congrat you know,
Speaker 3: because I used to, for example, come home and be like, hey,
Speaker 3: I had straight a's this year.
Speaker 2: He's just like, what's new? You can do it every time?
Speaker 3: And then in my mind, I'm like, no, this is
Speaker 3: an accomplishment because I was taking like this course and
Speaker 3: a people.
Speaker 6: All of the she came home with the B one time.
Speaker 6: I was hype because I got A in that class.
Speaker 2: Of course, So you communication, I got an A n B.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, that was the one semester I had all straight
Speaker 3: a's and that was the one B I got.
Speaker 2: I said, just because I don't.
Speaker 4: Think she got to get Josh. Everybody ain't small all
Speaker 4: the time, the.
Speaker 3: Fact that some of us living in the class I
Speaker 3: was signing in and then he came at the very end.
Speaker 2: You know, mister charismatic, let me.
Speaker 4: Tell you ridiculous. This is the truth.
Speaker 1: We only had this class. This was Monday, Wednesday, Fridays
Speaker 1: and I had spring ball. So I only came on
Speaker 1: Fridays because I had spring ball.
Speaker 4: The other day.
Speaker 6: She was signed me in. Never spoke to Drunker.
Speaker 1: Last day of class, we had to do presentation group presentations, right,
Speaker 1: never been there.
Speaker 4: For the group.
Speaker 1: Show up there the groups like what's up? So we
Speaker 1: got a presentation that I said I got. Y'all went
Speaker 1: up there killed the presentation, just straight spitball everything, just
Speaker 1: winging at making people laugh, joke. As soon as I
Speaker 1: got done, I walked up to Drunker. I said, Drunker,
Speaker 1: I want to tell you that I appreciate your class
Speaker 1: and so so many things I learned this semester that
Speaker 1: I could carry with myself beyond speech communication, but more
Speaker 1: in the terms of life, Like I feel like I
Speaker 1: became a better person because of your class.
Speaker 6: I can't wait to take your next class.
Speaker 4: Got it?
Speaker 7: Oh my god, gotta be specious.
Speaker 3: Yes, No, Charisma showed up on that was like, that's
Speaker 3: how And I said, this man is going to do
Speaker 3: anything he wants to do. The way he went up
Speaker 3: there and finised not only her, but the group protest.
Speaker 3: I was like, did you even know the topic? And
Speaker 3: the topic was off the And.
Speaker 7: I guess that kind of goes plays into the topic
Speaker 7: for today, because I really do believe that personality can
Speaker 7: carry you very far. Absolutely absolutely, And I mean you
Speaker 7: gotta be smart obviously to spitball that type of thing.
Speaker 7: You gotta be smart, You gotta know something, but your
Speaker 7: personality is going to take you the rest of the way.
Speaker 7: But another thing that I saw on the internet, so
Speaker 7: you guys know, the TSA shut down is happening. The
Speaker 7: Republicans are not funding Homeland Security and TSA is under that,
Speaker 7: but they are funding ICE, So they've been sending ICE
Speaker 7: agents to airports in the country to assist TSA. In
Speaker 7: most cases, they're just standing behind TSA agents doing nothing,
Speaker 7: and the TSA agent is not getting paid, but ICE
Speaker 7: agents are. So it's kind of a slap in the face.
Speaker 7: But on the Internet, somebody took a picture at Hartsfield
Speaker 7: Jackson of a stud ts I mean a stud ICE
Speaker 7: sation and the discourse is that, like, you know, black
Speaker 7: women being ICE agents. Those are basically ops, you know,
Speaker 7: and somebody posts it so it's protect black women as
Speaker 7: long as they're not military police or ICE agents. So
Speaker 7: a lot of people are saying, uh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4: But on that, Yo, it's hard.
Speaker 9: I gotta op man, because we're talking about come.
Speaker 4: On, if y'all stop talking, I might get my patient.
Speaker 2: I'm not the girl eating at the table, honey, I
Speaker 2: want to hear what you got to say.
Speaker 4: Now, I think, Yo, it's this economy is hard, Like
Speaker 4: a lot of people do things that they don't necessarily
Speaker 4: want to do so and that might be working for ICE.
Speaker 4: So why knock her for working for ice just to
Speaker 4: get a paycheck. She don't got to agree with the administration.
Speaker 8: She got to.
Speaker 1: Agree agreeing with that, I'm not agreeing with that because
Speaker 1: it's no different than when they say celebrities soul they
Speaker 1: sold for a dollar. You ultimately selling your soul and
Speaker 1: selling your people out to make money.
Speaker 6: It's the same thing. So if we as a community
Speaker 6: are going to.
Speaker 1: Say that celebrities quote unquote Selee soul for a dollar,
Speaker 1: you can't then say, oh, she's working doing something.
Speaker 4: You got to get paid. Do we say that or
Speaker 4: society says that? Because I'm thinking about society, I don't
Speaker 4: say celebrities sold their soul for a dollar.
Speaker 2: That narrative time.
Speaker 1: But Tripp was talking about the narrative and she said,
Speaker 1: is this where is this where we are as a
Speaker 1: society are with this?
Speaker 6: I'm saying the collective. Isn't that the question you asked?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think as a society, anybody who is on the
Speaker 1: side of fascism or who's on the side of oppressing
Speaker 1: people in any way, whether you're writing laws or you're
Speaker 1: part of law enforcement, I think everybody in the world
Speaker 1: is like fuck you.
Speaker 6: At this point, but that's what I think.
Speaker 4: All right, I can agree with that because I don't
Speaker 4: agree with fascism, But is it also staying quiet about
Speaker 4: it also aiding and aiding and not fighting It isn't
Speaker 4: that part of right? So like, if you're not putting
Speaker 4: a hard stand on where you stand publicly with your money,
Speaker 4: with h your approach to how you how you live
Speaker 4: on a daily basis, isn't it also signing with But.
Speaker 1: I think that's a false equivalency to someone signing up
Speaker 1: to actively take part in fashion. It's like when you're
Speaker 1: not saying nothing is different than signing up to lock
Speaker 1: people up.
Speaker 6: That's just two different things.
Speaker 7: And I don't think that collectively. I don't think that
Speaker 7: you know, black people are not saying or doing anything.
Speaker 7: I agree, So yeah, I think that is a false equivalency.
Speaker 7: And it's just like how much are you? Like, can
Speaker 7: you be bought? You know what I'm saying, how much
Speaker 7: is your dignity worth? How much is your I.
Speaker 4: Can see that I change my opinion.
Speaker 7: She got your number, Josh, No, it's on the record.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like I can't change my mind, I can't switch
Speaker 4: my ballot.
Speaker 3: You can totally do that. I mean that's what we're
Speaker 3: here for. That's what you kind of want to talk
Speaker 3: and see a different opinions.
Speaker 6: And understand people's perspective. That's why it's no judgment.
Speaker 1: But to me, it would be similar to signing up
Speaker 1: for the Montgomery Police Department in nineteen sixty five when
Speaker 1: they were terrorizing black people. You just said me, I
Speaker 1: need a job, I'm gonna be a and now you
Speaker 1: out there with the baton beating on black people too,
Speaker 1: Like that's just not getting I can't say at that point, like, well,
Speaker 1: you didn't say nothing, so it's the same thing. Na,
Speaker 1: that's not the same thing. You actively signed up to
Speaker 1: terrorize people. Ice is not doing any good, right, They're not.
Speaker 4: I say this, I don't don't. I don't know the context.
Speaker 4: I haven't seen. I don't. Is it the girl she's
Speaker 4: standing up, it's just like a screenshot of her. I've
Speaker 4: seen that, and she looks like desolate, like she don't
Speaker 4: even want to be there. Is that picture?
Speaker 6: Most of them they don't want to be there. I don't,
Speaker 6: And that's my this is my thing.
Speaker 4: I don't see.
Speaker 1: I can't see anyone other than a proud boy who
Speaker 1: wants to just terrorize marginalize people, saying, yo, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to be an ICE agent.
Speaker 4: Most people who.
Speaker 1: Are doing it are doing it because they don't have
Speaker 1: any other options, or they don't think they have any
Speaker 1: other options, when the truth is, there are other options
Speaker 1: than being the ICE agent. You don't have to resort
Speaker 1: to that. But it's the easiest thing because they're making
Speaker 1: it easy because they want people to sign them so
Speaker 1: they can continue to terrorize marginalized people.
Speaker 6: I just can't rock with that.
Speaker 2: And then her standing off to the side. I think
Speaker 2: about even just people who we know that like are cops,
Speaker 2: and it's just like.
Speaker 3: Okay, you are not fighting anything, so how did you
Speaker 3: become a cop? Now I'm gonna get an easy easy
Speaker 3: What do you call it easy?
Speaker 4: Being an easy check?
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying is I'm not fighting no crimes.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna just collect my check. I don't know if
Speaker 3: that's the approach. Maybe she's taking it. She's off to the side.
Speaker 3: She's like, let me sit here and the cut in
Speaker 3: my ICE uniform, knowing I really damn well don't want
Speaker 3: to be here, but I have a family to feed.
Speaker 6: That's what Josh is saying.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm saying I could I could see how
Speaker 3: that could be somebody's mentality, like I'm not gonna get
Speaker 3: in the mix too much, but I'm gonna just stand
Speaker 3: back here and collect this chain.
Speaker 1: The thing is, though, if you can, if you can
Speaker 1: go do construction at that point, if you if you
Speaker 1: want to go sign off to the side and do something,
Speaker 1: you can go sign up to do construction and make
Speaker 1: twenty five dollars an hour hard labor.
Speaker 2: That's true.
Speaker 6: You don't have to sign up, get a gun, and
Speaker 6: then labor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the unemployment rate is like hi, right now,
Speaker 3: there's a lot of just no opportunities for people.
Speaker 1: But what I'm saying is you avoiding hard labor to
Speaker 1: do something easy and terror wised black and brown folks
Speaker 1: is wrong that That to me is just wrong because
Speaker 1: you're avoiding what's difficult to do what's easy at the
Speaker 1: expense of other people. That to me is just I
Speaker 1: would never do that. The only way I'd be an
Speaker 1: ICE agent if I was in there telling on all
Speaker 1: the Ice agents, if I had a camera, I'm.
Speaker 4: What stuffs happening.
Speaker 1: I'm like, look look what they're doing. Look what they're doing.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna show you this. Everybody camera's off. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: my camera's off. Look, that's the only way I could
Speaker 1: see myself being.
Speaker 7: There's a young comic, Lavelle Dante who he made a
Speaker 7: joke recently that was like, I would sign up for
Speaker 7: ICE and I would go to places and be like,
Speaker 7: y'all get the hell out of here.
Speaker 4: I mean, yo, right, that's the only way I can
Speaker 4: see myself being there.
Speaker 1: Probably, I'm sure there are some people who have signed
Speaker 1: up fires, and we probably can get in trouble for
Speaker 1: saying this out loud who probably planning, like y'are about
Speaker 1: to come here, y'all need to If I was from
Speaker 1: New York and I was gonna join ICE, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, they coming up to the Bronx tomorrow,
Speaker 1: y'all don't be around this street.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: I'm pretty sure there's people doing and if they're doing that,
Speaker 6: more power to you. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: They got to say melt, melt great.
Speaker 10: I think this is I agree with Governor Wes Moore.
Speaker 10: He said this the other day. This is a bigger play.
Speaker 10: Some Trump is working on something bigger with sending ICE today. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 10: we don't see right now.
Speaker 2: It was in Project twenty five privatizing.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, it's a part of it.
Speaker 7: Well well, well, and h what was also in there
Speaker 7: was privatizing the post office? And the post Office is
Speaker 7: running out of money.
Speaker 6: I mean, let's be honest. America is run like a business.
Speaker 2: I mean it makes sense not even work for the
Speaker 2: post Office. That don't even be at work.
Speaker 4: Man, the post Office is the post Office is not
Speaker 4: a for profit business, y' true, they're not. It's a
Speaker 4: it's a several true service.
Speaker 2: Yeah, service, it's necessary.
Speaker 7: I want to work for the post Office. But that's
Speaker 7: my dream job.
Speaker 2: Are you serving like postal worker.
Speaker 4: The post office?
Speaker 2: In her What do you call those Doc Martins shorts
Speaker 2: walking down?
Speaker 7: Yea?
Speaker 1: I see you getting dressed up in the post office
Speaker 1: looking great. You don't work well with people.
Speaker 8: You be calling people.
Speaker 4: I want to work at the post office taking people mail.
Speaker 7: Have you ever been to the post Office and had
Speaker 7: a good customer service experience? Never? Never? That's why I
Speaker 7: want to work there, because they don't they don't give
Speaker 7: a toy. It's post office and d M v oh yeah,
Speaker 7: and the bus driver yeah, t a them M T.
Speaker 2: A is in the school safety train.
Speaker 4: I would do school safety before I do ice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh for sure.
Speaker 4: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: By breaking up fight, I mean you can make it.
Speaker 4: You can make an impact as a school safety absolutely can.
Speaker 2: I still remember I remember my school safety officer.
Speaker 4: It was dope.
Speaker 2: They had great relationships.
Speaker 4: They handled mad beefts.
Speaker 1: There was things that should have happened that if school
Speaker 1: safety wasn't handling issue.
Speaker 4: It was the actual police department would have been horrible.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely. While we got the police in our school though,
Speaker 4: that's crazy.
Speaker 6: And metal detectives, which is that's how we grew up.
Speaker 4: We had actually machines in our school.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had them to it. You had him in
Speaker 1: midw We had actually metal detectives in Madison. We had
Speaker 1: to put our bags to for them.
Speaker 2: Events and hooligans, honey.
Speaker 10: I went to the greatest public Catholic school af a
Speaker 10: Bishop for where we saw knife and guns in the
Speaker 10: locker room.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 4: They closed. Now, welcome to Brooklyn.
Speaker 8: That part.
Speaker 7: So we're talking about building wealth with the trade.
Speaker 6: You said something that I wanted to go back to
Speaker 6: talk about charisma.
Speaker 4: My dad.
Speaker 1: My dad told the story when he let go from sundown.
Speaker 1: This is also important why I did what I did
Speaker 1: with Ducker Drunker. He got let go from sundown and
Speaker 1: he was one of the last guys out in his
Speaker 1: computer right and everybody was closing up and leaving their stuff,
Speaker 1: and they were just walking out.
Speaker 6: He got up, walked by, saw the manager and said, hey, man, I.
Speaker 1: Was appreciate you know, the opportunity. He said, Hey, Troy,
Speaker 1: before you leave, I got something for you. That guy
Speaker 1: hired my dad at his next job, and it was
Speaker 1: mainly because my father was always the person that was last.
Speaker 1: He always got there early, and he always spoke to people.
Speaker 1: He was always very very nice. So I took that
Speaker 1: from my dad. Every time I do something, I always
Speaker 1: tell people I really appreciate it. I tell him thank you,
Speaker 1: you know. And ever since I've been doing that, I've
Speaker 1: realized my life, I've been able to succeed because people
Speaker 1: look out for those who they remember.
Speaker 8: That is a fact.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 1: It don't matter how good you it doesn't matter how
Speaker 1: good you do a job. If they remember you and
Speaker 1: they like working with you, they're more than likely to
Speaker 1: pull you up. And that's part of having a trade
Speaker 1: that people don't realize. A lot of people don't make
Speaker 1: money in their trades, not because they're not good that
Speaker 1: the trade, is because they're not good with relationship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and customer service.
Speaker 3: That's so true because I was working with a makeup
Speaker 3: artist years ago, and she was younger than me, and
Speaker 3: at the time I was kind of all my way
Speaker 3: out of the industry, but she was on her way
Speaker 3: in coming and I had hired her to do my
Speaker 3: makeup one time just to kind of see, like, Okay,
Speaker 3: this girl's talented, she can do something.
Speaker 2: Give her a shot.
Speaker 3: And I realized that even just her interaction with me
Speaker 3: was very kind of cut and dry, which is also fine.
Speaker 3: I didn't know if in part maybe she was nervous
Speaker 3: the first time working with me or what. But I
Speaker 3: had said to her, I'm like, listen, if you want
Speaker 3: to like take this thing. You're so talented, you're so young,
Speaker 3: you have so much ability. I said, you can make
Speaker 3: a lot of money in this industry by being an
Speaker 3: on demand makeup artist. But it's not even as much
Speaker 3: your talent and your skill. It's how you make the
Speaker 3: person feel when they're in your chair. So you have
Speaker 3: to be that person that's personable and outgoing and make
Speaker 3: the conversation. I said, sometimes people will sit in your
Speaker 3: chair and they'll just start spilling their guts. It's almost like,
Speaker 3: is this a therapy session or what you know? But
Speaker 3: in that making people feel comfortable and you being memorable
Speaker 3: as someone who they want to hire and want to
Speaker 3: be in their space is very very important. And she
Speaker 3: was able to take that piece of advice, and as
Speaker 3: she got older and she matured, she was able to
Speaker 3: build out a business and became like a really big
Speaker 3: influencer in the makeup industry as well. So saying that
Speaker 3: to say, you're absolutely right about customer service and how
Speaker 3: you make people feel with the experience being like eighty
Speaker 3: percent of the battle.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's important for people to understand too.
Speaker 1: Customer service important relations, but also listening and learning the
Speaker 1: craft because I said, it doesn't matter how good you are,
Speaker 1: which is really not true. You have to become a
Speaker 1: master of your craft in order to get paid and
Speaker 1: I think that's important. But also time management. When you
Speaker 1: have a trade, people don't realize that part of your trade.
Speaker 1: And I learned this through Josh. We're talking about this story.
Speaker 1: I hired Draj to be my photographer. You think that
Speaker 1: all Josh does is take pictures. Then you find out
Speaker 1: that there's hours of editing that goes afterwards. And then
Speaker 1: as a person who tries to master their trade, you
Speaker 1: have to figure out how to master your hours in
Speaker 1: a day to maximize how much money you make during
Speaker 1: that time. Most people give up on their trade because
Speaker 1: they can't master that point. For example, when I was
Speaker 1: in college, my trade was cutting here. I learned how
Speaker 1: to cut here, and I would charge people ten dollars
Speaker 1: for a haircut, so I knew. I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: if I can do this every Saturday and Sunday and
Speaker 1: I can cut at least five heads, I could make
Speaker 1: one hundred dollars a weekend. Then I started realizing, like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, if I get two pair of clippers,
Speaker 1: I don't have to wait for the clippers to cool down.
Speaker 1: I could actually do ten heads in the day. And
Speaker 1: it was just like cutting down and learning how to
Speaker 1: master the craft. But the time element of the craft
Speaker 1: is how you make the most money for sure. And
Speaker 1: then the biggest part about owning a trade or having
Speaker 1: a trade is learning when to duplicate yourself and when
Speaker 1: to scale. Thought that I remember when Kadeen started doing
Speaker 1: so many weddings that she taught Sakari how to do makeup,
Speaker 1: and then they would split the bridesmaids. And then it
Speaker 1: got to a point where they splitting weddings because k
Speaker 1: would go to one and Soakari will go to one
Speaker 1: on the same day. And I'm like, yo, you just
Speaker 1: too exed your input because you've been able to duplicate yourself.
Speaker 3: No, for sure, that was super important when I realized, like, oh,
Speaker 3: these bridal parties are coming out with just you know,
Speaker 3: four or five bridesmaids. There is a mom, there's the
Speaker 3: mom of the bride, mom of the groom, and sometimes
Speaker 3: there's huge wedding parties. It's like thirteen people. Josh and
Speaker 3: I were together in the makeup and wedding industry for
Speaker 3: a minute, and yeah, I was like, shoot, if I
Speaker 3: can even just book a wedding and then outsore as
Speaker 3: my sister to you know, do the faces and pay
Speaker 3: her a portion of what I've made, that's just me
Speaker 3: making money without having to even show up in that space.
Speaker 4: That's the key.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's why I ended up leaving retail as well.
Speaker 3: And I kept the retail job though, and it's important,
Speaker 3: like you said to know your trade. I always wanted
Speaker 3: to learn, and being able to be a freelance makeup
Speaker 3: artist working in the store with Matt Cosmetics gave me
Speaker 3: the on the job training that I needed to always
Speaker 3: be on trend and to be in the spaces to
Speaker 3: meet people and to develop those relationships so I can say, hey,
Speaker 3: oh my god, I'm helping you with the lip today.
Speaker 2: What's this lipstick for.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to find the perfect shade of lipstick for
Speaker 3: my wedding day. Oh my goodness, your wedding day is
Speaker 3: coming up?
Speaker 2: When is it? Do you have a makeup artist? I
Speaker 2: actually know I'm kind of in the market for one.
Speaker 7: Cool.
Speaker 2: How about we do a trial real quick, see how
Speaker 2: you like the makeup, and then we can chat. We
Speaker 2: can chat. That's how I met so many of my clients.
Speaker 3: And guess what, she has friends who are in that
Speaker 3: same age group who are also getting married. So I
Speaker 3: got into some amazing friend groups of people where I
Speaker 3: just was like that rotating makeup artists who did everyone's
Speaker 3: makeup at some point.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up because so many people
Speaker 1: who are trying to get into entrepreneurship be like I'm
Speaker 1: ready to just quit my job, and all of us
Speaker 1: will say it, we started in our businesses, but kept
Speaker 1: our job while building our businesses. Yeah, I did the
Speaker 1: same thing in TV film. I never just jumped out
Speaker 1: of anything. When I was in football, I got cut
Speaker 1: and I started doing training, but I kept training until
Speaker 1: I could make sure that my money was making enough
Speaker 1: for my family to survive before I went to something else.
Speaker 6: And I think people don't.
Speaker 4: Realize that that's a possibility.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, you can work a nine to five and
Speaker 1: then when you do with five, hey, I'm gonna work
Speaker 1: on my trade from six to nine. That's three hours,
Speaker 1: and be like, how much money can you make? I'm
Speaker 1: like three hours every day, seven days a week. It's
Speaker 1: twenty one hours. And if you say you work in
Speaker 1: a trade where you can make one hundred dollars an hour,
Speaker 1: you're looking at twenty one hundred dollars you can make,
Speaker 1: oh for sure, in a week. And people's like, it's
Speaker 1: not possible. It really is that possible. I've watched everybody
Speaker 1: here earn enough money to live on their trade. You're
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out how to continuously grow it.
Speaker 3: You know, when did you leave your ninety five because
Speaker 3: you were you were at Chase as well too. Yeah,
Speaker 3: twenty twelve, When did you finally feel comfortable to say,
Speaker 3: you know what, I can actually let this twenty twelve?
Speaker 2: After how many years that was?
Speaker 4: I was at Chase for about six years?
Speaker 2: Okay?
Speaker 7: Yeah?
Speaker 8: But one thing, one thing that you.
Speaker 4: You mentioned and Devel sort of mentioned as well when
Speaker 4: you said you were at the makeup makeup we call
Speaker 4: it boot Matt maybe the counter there you go, And
Speaker 4: how you actually got your clientele was actually being personable.
Speaker 4: And the same thing with school, right, you talked about
Speaker 4: how has charisma helped him? But that personability that you
Speaker 4: that you have to have with people where you aren't
Speaker 4: necessarily coming across as you are seeking clientele, but you're
Speaker 4: generally caring, is where things, yes, sort of can shift
Speaker 4: for you. Right, Like I don't have to be the
Speaker 4: best at my task, but as long as I people
Speaker 4: allow people to feel seen, absolutely right, that goes a
Speaker 4: long way. I'm not the best photographer, and I know
Speaker 4: that I don't necessarily need to be the best photographer.
Speaker 4: You just need to have people feel like they are
Speaker 4: being seen, right, I.
Speaker 1: Think so subjective though what you're saying you're not, because
Speaker 1: I think many people will say.
Speaker 4: You are the best photographers. And that's fine for other
Speaker 4: people to say it, right, but there is no there's
Speaker 4: no test, right, Like you can't say I know what
Speaker 4: you mean. You know, I took this test and it
Speaker 4: came up and said I'm I'm the number one.
Speaker 7: I mean, if we're talking tests, the pictures you've took.
Speaker 4: Of me on my phone, it was a video, a video.
Speaker 7: Never get over that.
Speaker 4: I don't care my target audience.
Speaker 8: This is an example of.
Speaker 4: What I'm trying to make is like there's that there's
Speaker 4: that personal person ability that you have to have besides
Speaker 4: aiming to be the best, have that sort of uh
Speaker 4: mindset that you actually care about how this person feels
Speaker 4: about how they look. And that was my thing, Like
Speaker 4: I can't how you can feel about how you look
Speaker 4: in a picture more than me trying to be the
Speaker 4: best photographer, because you might not necessarily need the best
Speaker 4: uh pictures. You need to feel like you actually look
Speaker 4: like yourself or look better than you feel inside. To
Speaker 4: a case point, like when she comes when people come
Speaker 4: to the counter and she's like, well, what you're here for?
Speaker 4: Instead of saying, oh, let me just tell you this
Speaker 4: because this is what you need to sell in this season,
Speaker 4: because this is what corporus pushing.
Speaker 2: Because I wouldn't know.
Speaker 1: You're selling them the experience of being with you as
Speaker 1: a partner. That's ultimately what you're selling.
Speaker 4: You're selling the experience caring about what their goals are.
Speaker 4: If you're a personal trainer.
Speaker 6: It's the same thing.
Speaker 4: I'm not caring, Like, I don't want to care so
Speaker 4: much that you lost ten pounds in the next three
Speaker 4: months and I got to put you on social media. No,
Speaker 4: I care about how you feel about how you look
Speaker 4: catered to that.
Speaker 8: You know what I'm saying. The good ones, the good
Speaker 8: ones do that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And that's what And the point is how to
Speaker 4: how to excel in your field beyond the talent that
Speaker 4: you have, right, and if you if you want to
Speaker 4: get out the Mud and you want to succeed that
Speaker 4: getting out the Mud, you got to care about the
Speaker 4: people that you're servicing that more more than your ultimate
Speaker 4: clip it that that is a fact.
Speaker 2: Do you guys, would you hire a trainer who's out
Speaker 2: of shape?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: No, I wouldn't know, Like, do you have to love the.
Speaker 2: Part of me from Matt?
Speaker 8: Maybe if I was trying to be on the D
Speaker 8: line or line.
Speaker 1: I'm listening to see what you're say, perspective, See what
Speaker 1: you're saying perspective.
Speaker 4: You know, it's funny. I thought about that this morning. Right,
Speaker 4: I could. I could if I were playing sports, I
Speaker 4: could play for a coach that didn't play ball. Right,
Speaker 4: you just got to understand the game.
Speaker 9: You'll be able to explain the games. Yeah, that makes
Speaker 9: me understand as well. You don't need to necessarily play.
Speaker 9: You talking about aesthetics, I feel you got to be
Speaker 9: able to do it with me because.
Speaker 10: There's a lot of people that are in shape and
Speaker 10: can't even run. They have no running, can't do anything athletic.
Speaker 7: I think.
Speaker 1: I think fitness is very very different because like, if
Speaker 1: I'm going to a trainer and I want to look
Speaker 1: a certain way, I'm not going to go to the
Speaker 1: training that doesn't look the way I want to go.
Speaker 4: I'm going to go to the guy and say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm trying to look like you because I know
Speaker 1: you doing it and I know it's possible if I
Speaker 1: see you do it. So for me training the same
Speaker 1: thing with a barber, I'm not going to a barber
Speaker 1: that got a jacked up haircut bro Like.
Speaker 2: It's like, wait a minute, if you don't take pride
Speaker 2: in yourself, you can't take.
Speaker 6: Is just not doing that.
Speaker 3: It's funny you mentioned that too, because that had a
Speaker 3: lot to do with it too. Even at MAC, at
Speaker 3: my counter days, on the random shift, depending on the
Speaker 3: size of the store, it would be four to five
Speaker 3: of us in rotation, all different different personalities, different makeup
Speaker 3: aesthetic and you could see people walk through the door
Speaker 3: and they kind of scan to see who they aspire
Speaker 3: to look like or who looks like they did the
Speaker 3: bomb job on their makeup. I used to always go
Speaker 3: the more natural rite. That was just my natural, my preference.
Speaker 3: And the thing at MAC, I think back in the day.
Speaker 3: Don't know if it's still a standard, but you had
Speaker 3: to have at least thirteen products on your face, so
Speaker 3: between like your lips, your foundation, your powder, it can
Speaker 3: add up quickly. But in order to achieve that look,
Speaker 3: you're essentially attracting a certain kind of clientele as well.
Speaker 10: So sometimes before you see people like why she got
Speaker 10: so much makeup on doing other people makeup?
Speaker 4: But hearing that that, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: Do you think of everyone?
Speaker 4: It's easy for you to pull more clientele by having
Speaker 4: the natural look, because the person that doesn't know every
Speaker 4: day makeup, they automatically like, I want to put makeup on,
Speaker 4: but I don't want to look look.
Speaker 2: Like exactly exactly. And I used to sell. I used
Speaker 2: to sell through the roof. I always want to in US.
Speaker 3: Was was like insane and it was just like and
Speaker 3: I didn't even realize how good I was at it
Speaker 3: until I would start just having again conversations and before
Speaker 3: you know it, they're like, all right, I'll take that,
Speaker 3: and I'll take that, and I'll take that. And to me,
Speaker 3: everyone kept asking like, how do you do this? I
Speaker 3: had to start doing classes on like how to raise
Speaker 3: your A U S.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, because you're personal communication skills.
Speaker 6: Are like you don't realize.
Speaker 2: I was listening to drug you go to people. She
Speaker 2: should have got today.
Speaker 1: She got to be but she got it in life,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But you are really good
Speaker 1: with communicating to people. A lot of people when you go,
Speaker 1: like just for example, today, if you go to get
Speaker 1: anybody buy anything from anywhere, it seems like the minute
Speaker 1: you go to talk to someone, they just don't want
Speaker 1: to talk to you.
Speaker 6: So the simple fact that you look people in the
Speaker 6: eye and say hello and good morning. They got you
Speaker 6: got them already.
Speaker 1: Because when I went to best Buy, I went the
Speaker 1: best Boy to go get a TV eighty three and
Speaker 1: TV them shits is expensive. You would think people are
Speaker 1: going to get commissioned. The would be excited. I said, hey,
Speaker 1: how much is that TV in the back.
Speaker 4: You because I'm trying to buy a TV from.
Speaker 8: You, like trying to hide on my break.
Speaker 3: Like when you go to somebody who is supposed to
Speaker 3: also be an expert in your in their trade, you
Speaker 3: want to hear that, yes, like I want to learn
Speaker 3: something from you before I even attempt to hire you
Speaker 3: to do anything for me.
Speaker 2: I want to hear how well versed you are in
Speaker 2: your in your trade, you know. So that's important.
Speaker 4: If I speak to you you feel like I'm a
Speaker 4: burden to you and you're the expert.
Speaker 6: Yeah, wrap, I'm not coming back to you.
Speaker 4: And if I feel like that, I'm sure other people
Speaker 4: feel like that. Absolutely So. I mean, if I have
Speaker 4: to get any advice to anybody who really wants to
Speaker 4: get out the mud like act like you care man.
Speaker 3: That was gonna be my min or care nowhere else
Speaker 3: genuinely care, genuinely care about what you care about what
Speaker 3: you're doing.
Speaker 1: No, that is important though, to care enough to get
Speaker 1: paid for it, sure, because some people I don't never
Speaker 1: get paid to do this. Where you didn't care enough
Speaker 1: to show anybody in value, that's why you don't get paid.
Speaker 4: Your product looks like you don't care, And there's gonna
Speaker 4: be times where you're like so bogged down with work.
Speaker 4: The only thing that's really pushing you through is getting
Speaker 4: paid and caring about how like the final result, Like
Speaker 4: if you don't care, you you you're liable to like
Speaker 4: not continue and not move forward at all.
Speaker 1: So let me ask a question to all of y'all, right,
Speaker 1: because I know when you say this, people say no
Speaker 1: one can do this. You've watched me work eighteen hours, right,
Speaker 1: and I know what I was going through. What was
Speaker 1: getting y'all through those times when it was like I'm
Speaker 1: at work and I got this trade I'm trying to build,
Speaker 1: Like what was it that was just like, nah, I'm
Speaker 1: keep going.
Speaker 10: Well for me, I dropped out of school to pursue photography,
Speaker 10: But I wasn't good at photography when I dropped out
Speaker 10: of school, So I went to Walgreens. I had a
Speaker 10: job at a hotel doing av work. I was playing
Speaker 10: drums at church. I was doing everything to make money
Speaker 10: while still learning photography. So I had to keep on pushing, pushing.
Speaker 10: I know the end goal, but I'm not there yet,
Speaker 10: so I wanted to get there, and a lot is riding.
Speaker 8: On the line.
Speaker 1: So master you wanted to learn mastery? Yeah, that's from
Speaker 1: that was similar to exercise physiology. I went from playing
Speaker 1: in the league to making ten dollars an hour working
Speaker 1: at Parisi Speed School because I wanted to learn, but
Speaker 1: they were going to pay for my National Academy of
Speaker 1: Sports Medicine certificate and.
Speaker 4: For me to go back to school. So I dealt
Speaker 4: with it.
Speaker 6: But it was hard though bro Like it was times.
Speaker 1: I was like Man's but it was caring about the
Speaker 1: fact that I really wanted to help kids get faster
Speaker 1: so that they can get to college.
Speaker 6: I saw something.
Speaker 1: I said, Yo, there's a niche here if I can
Speaker 1: get them forty times down at the national average at
Speaker 1: that point for kids in Brooklyn for the forty was
Speaker 1: something like four to nine. It was something terrible because
Speaker 1: most of the football kids didn't run track, so when
Speaker 1: they went to camps.
Speaker 6: In the local Tri State area, most of the city
Speaker 6: kids were struggling.
Speaker 1: This was in twenty ten, and I was like, if
Speaker 1: we can get the four to nine down to like
Speaker 1: four to six, we have a lot more kids going
Speaker 1: to college.
Speaker 6: So I wanted to learn the mastery of the forty
Speaker 6: yard dash.
Speaker 1: And because I cared so much about the mastery and
Speaker 1: I learned it, I was getting kids forty times down.
Speaker 6: And then that's how word spread. That's another thing finding a.
Speaker 4: Niche than and being so broad.
Speaker 6: If you have a trade, you can't just say I'm
Speaker 6: a barber. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: What are you specialize in? Special pushing back care lines?
Speaker 4: You're trying to find them. That's a niche. Bro It
Speaker 4: is a niche. Your niche was wedding photography.
Speaker 3: Right, and I was gonna say mine was make up
Speaker 3: with weddings. In addition to that, when you're in a trade,
Speaker 3: depending on what your trade is, trade is is there
Speaker 3: an ecosystem that you can exist within, Because for us
Speaker 3: it was weddings. So connecting with photographers who did weddings,
Speaker 3: connecting with wedding planners, connecting with dress designers, connecting with
Speaker 3: hair stylists, you are literally in ecosystem where people are
Speaker 3: constantly getting inquiries or referrals. So it's like, hey, I
Speaker 3: know this makeup artist, so if I do a good
Speaker 3: job with this gig, it's almost like you're auditioning for
Speaker 3: the next game.
Speaker 4: You build the community auditioning. Literally every time you work
Speaker 4: for the next one, you already got the person there.
Speaker 4: And that's one thing that people don't realize. I know
Speaker 4: we jump in all over the place, but a lot
Speaker 4: of people when they're looking at where they want to be,
Speaker 4: they're focused on only where they want to be and
Speaker 4: not what's the task at hand. How many times people
Speaker 4: come to me and like, man I wish I could
Speaker 4: do that, Like Yo, how did you get to do that?
Speaker 4: But you focus on that and that that might be
Speaker 4: you might not get to what that is you got to.
Speaker 4: You gotta seriously think about what you're actively doing now
Speaker 4: and treat what you're doing now like now is that
Speaker 4: so that when you get something else that becomes you're
Speaker 4: like you're now Everything that you do now needs to
Speaker 4: get your your one hundred attention. A lot of people
Speaker 4: focus on, man I really want to get into If
Speaker 4: they say I want to get into doing like one
Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars weddings. I really want to do that. Bro,
Speaker 4: you got to shoot the one hundred the ten k weddings,
Speaker 4: and you got to shoot ten k weddings like they
Speaker 4: hundred k weddings, and you got to get to the
Speaker 4: thirty k weddings, and you got shoot the thirty k
Speaker 4: weddings like they hundred k weddings. That's the only way
Speaker 4: you're gonna get because if you sit in and focus
Speaker 4: on man, I really can't the weddings that I have now,
Speaker 4: or are things that I do now, it's not like that.
Speaker 4: You'll never get there.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's that was my mindset because when I started podcasting,
Speaker 7: I really wanted to be an on air producer on
Speaker 7: the radio. And so I started producing my own podcast,
Speaker 7: and I started producing podcasts for other people, and I
Speaker 7: was doing this for free. I was getting paid. I
Speaker 7: had a full time job. I was staying up all
Speaker 7: night to edit my podcast. I was going all over
Speaker 7: the city to interview people. I was doing live shows,
Speaker 7: I was hosting live events, and I was doing all
Speaker 7: of that as if you know, I was already a
Speaker 7: professional broadcaster and because of that. Then I started getting
Speaker 7: invited on the radio to be a monthly contributor. And
Speaker 7: then once they had a position open, they invited me
Speaker 7: to apply for the position. But it took me four
Speaker 7: years to get there. But it was like, and I
Speaker 7: was getting paid for little like hosting gigs here and there.
Speaker 7: People would start inviting me because they knew that I
Speaker 7: was a podcast host and I had started doing comedy,
Speaker 7: so then people would start inviting me to host things.
Speaker 7: And you know, I would get paid little by little
Speaker 7: here and there, but for the radio, the monthly contribution spot,
Speaker 7: if I was doing it for free. I was riding
Speaker 7: my bike like ten miles to the radio station to
Speaker 7: be on the radio for thirty minutes, you know, and
Speaker 7: getting to know the director, getting to know the morning host,
Speaker 7: getting to know you know, the people that work at
Speaker 7: the station.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just get the steps.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And that's the thing.
Speaker 6: People say, they want to do what you want to
Speaker 6: do until you tell them what you had.
Speaker 4: I ain't doing all of that.
Speaker 3: That happens to us all the time. People always want
Speaker 3: to know because you know, it's easy to listen to
Speaker 3: de Valeni. Now we were talking about this last night.
Speaker 3: We're twenty four years in so Devalancatin you here now
Speaker 3: if you go back to season one, completely different people. Right,
Speaker 3: We've learned so much over the time, but when we
Speaker 3: tell people the things that we've had to do to
Speaker 3: make it to this point.
Speaker 8: It's daunting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're like, I'm not doing all that.
Speaker 3: Like I was just talking to even my sister about
Speaker 3: like the first five years of our marriage where we
Speaker 3: literally were struggling with everything and we had to sacrifice
Speaker 3: so many things that we weren't going on trips, we
Speaker 3: weren't buying anything. It was just basic, bare minimum stuff.
Speaker 3: And then it's just like she'll look at me, like,
Speaker 3: we gotta do that for how long? I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's kind of how it works.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 3: If you want to have that autonomy over your time,
Speaker 3: which I think is probably the thing that we all
Speaker 3: have in common with our trades, is you want to
Speaker 3: be able to develop a trade that is able to
Speaker 3: sustain your lifestyle to give you autonomy over time. That's
Speaker 3: what Deval and I wanted from the very very beginning
Speaker 3: because we knew we always wanted to be parents, we
Speaker 3: wanted to be active parents, and we're also artists, Like
Speaker 3: we can't do the things that we want to do
Speaker 3: if our livelihood is not sustained, so we can do
Speaker 3: the things we want to do. So it requires lots
Speaker 3: of steps to get to where you want to be.
Speaker 1: People need to understand it's called out the mud because
Speaker 1: it's dirty work. It's not glamorous work. So I had
Speaker 1: a little bit of debate. We were talking about this
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago, and I said that we
Speaker 1: had sacrificed for five years working eighteen hours, no trips,
Speaker 1: and dude put on theres like, ain't nobody doing all
Speaker 1: of that? I said that that mentality is the reason
Speaker 1: why you never wait exactly where you are stagnant in life,
Speaker 1: because you're not willing to challenge yourself and take sacrifices
Speaker 1: to make the leap. You can say you want that,
Speaker 1: but if everybody could get that easily, everybody will.
Speaker 4: Anybody think that the opportunity is a lottery as opposed
Speaker 4: to there's a tack that people might like, you need
Speaker 4: grit like more than anything else, even in corporate like
Speaker 4: even climbing that corporate ladder. It takes grit and all
Speaker 4: disciplin get places.
Speaker 6: For me.
Speaker 4: There's two there's two type of people. There's people that
Speaker 4: are complacent and they just want to collect the check
Speaker 4: and that's okay. But if you have aspirations to be
Speaker 4: anything bigger than what you currently are in a given moment,
Speaker 4: it's gonna take grit and it's not gonna happen tomorrow.
Speaker 4: It's I mean, there's there's a few people that hit
Speaker 4: the lottery and they discovered and like the whole world changes,
Speaker 4: Keith Lee might pop up in your restaurant and everything changes.
Speaker 4: But those those opportunities feel farm between you because the
Speaker 4: reality is the grit that you that that takes you
Speaker 4: from point A to Z teaches you so much like
Speaker 4: that becomes invaluable then even like the lottery might not
Speaker 4: like the lottery might not even be sustainable because when
Speaker 4: I've learned a lottery, what I learned from A to
Speaker 4: Z you can't get no school. Is teaching me that
Speaker 4: the client relations that I've had to keep, the relations
Speaker 4: that I met like that. I've had so many pictures
Speaker 4: of people that I've taken that I cannot show, right,
Speaker 4: I love. I love that for myself because it's n
Speaker 4: d a's and people pay for n d as. There's
Speaker 4: people who who come to my student and be like, hey,
Speaker 4: I don't want this on social media just because this
Speaker 4: is not my thing. I just want to preserve my memories.
Speaker 4: And I'm okay with that because I earned my checks
Speaker 4: not based off what I show online, but I earned
Speaker 4: my checks because of my grit and what I've done
Speaker 4: from A to Z. You know what I'm saying that
Speaker 4: people don't understand. They just think like I could just
Speaker 4: you know, I'm away, Like you said the dudes like,
Speaker 4: ain't nobody doing all that? If you ain't doing all that,
Speaker 4: you might hit the lottery one day. But I promise
Speaker 4: you the game is rigged.
Speaker 7: Man.
Speaker 4: You got to go through A to Z. Yeah, you
Speaker 4: got to work there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, now that we know.
Speaker 3: So as we wrap up the conversation, now that we
Speaker 3: know about trades, what do you think about, for example,
Speaker 3: our children future children. Are you going to encourage them
Speaker 3: to do the four year college or if they say, mom, dad,
Speaker 3: I want to take up this trade. What are we
Speaker 3: going to start to kind of encourage our children to do.
Speaker 3: As we look to the future, now that so many
Speaker 3: jobs are going to become obsolete due to AI changes
Speaker 3: in you know, technology, is it better off to kind
Speaker 3: of encourage the next generation to pick up a trade
Speaker 3: versus like just going to a four year college.
Speaker 1: I'll say this, I'm not going to prepare my sons
Speaker 1: for the way life is now because it won't be
Speaker 1: like this for them. I'm going to support them in
Speaker 1: the change that the world's going through. But I also
Speaker 1: have a different, greater sense of purpose. We've worked our
Speaker 1: tails off to ensure that our children don't have to
Speaker 1: wake up every day thinking about how they're going to
Speaker 1: earn revenue to live, you know what I'm saying. So,
Speaker 1: because that is not how they're going to have to
Speaker 1: see the world, they don't have to think about trades
Speaker 1: in that way. I want them to think about what
Speaker 1: they want their life purpose to me, what they want
Speaker 1: to do to better humanity, and whatever they want to
Speaker 1: do to better humanity. I want them to find a
Speaker 1: way to utilize their resources to do that, you know, exponentially.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means career wise. I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's philanthropy work, I don't know if it's art.
Speaker 1: But I just I just don't know how to prepare
Speaker 1: them to be like you gotta work like But if
Speaker 1: they don't want to work Let's say, for example, CODA
Speaker 1: graduates fifteen years from now, we'll worth three hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty million dollars. I'm gonna tell my eighteen year old them,
Speaker 1: you got to go to college, get a job, because
Speaker 1: you won't be able.
Speaker 4: To approach yourself.
Speaker 6: He gonna look at me like that, you're rich, So
Speaker 6: I want to give them a different sense of rich.
Speaker 2: You're not rich, So what are you gonna do?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: But here's here's the truth.
Speaker 1: Though all of us grew up with a scarcity mind
Speaker 1: mindset because our parents weren't able to give us that
Speaker 1: autonomy over our lives.
Speaker 6: I don't want ustlings to have to go through that,
Speaker 6: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I watched my white counterparts who I went to college with,
Speaker 1: who parents always had money, and they were in college
Speaker 1: because they wanted to, not because it was a force
Speaker 1: on them. And I think for a lot of us
Speaker 1: as black parents, is like, you force your kids to
Speaker 1: go to school because.
Speaker 4: You got to help me. You know, you got to help,
Speaker 4: You got to provide, you got to be a contributor
Speaker 4: to this family.
Speaker 1: And it's like, I don't want my kids to grow
Speaker 1: up feeling that way of if I don't contribute.
Speaker 4: I'm a failure.
Speaker 2: It's also the accolades that come with going to college.
Speaker 3: Right. Jackson asked me the other day, he was like, Mom,
Speaker 3: how would you feel if like I didn't want to
Speaker 3: go to college and I just wanted to go like
Speaker 3: straight to the NBA or whatever or the NFL. Him
Speaker 3: and Cairo and the three of us were talking, and
Speaker 3: I said, and then Cairo looks at Jackson and he
Speaker 3: was like, you know, Mom's gonna want to go to
Speaker 3: us to go to college. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 3: college will be nice, but let's be for real. Why
Speaker 3: do we go to college?
Speaker 2: And they're like, so that you can learn to get
Speaker 2: a job. I say, exactly.
Speaker 3: So if you're graduating from high school with a built
Speaker 3: in job already, that's going to make you multimillion dollars,
Speaker 3: and that's the opportunity that you have in that moment.
Speaker 3: Why would I tell you not to take that opportunity?
Speaker 3: Because essentially you can make multimillion dollars, do the right
Speaker 3: things with your money, invest in start businesses. That way,
Speaker 3: you can sustain your life that when you're done playing sports,
Speaker 3: because it's a short span of life, you'll then already
Speaker 3: have businesses and investments.
Speaker 2: And you can then go get your degree to college.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you can then decide which is what's going to
Speaker 3: be next for that next portion of life. But I
Speaker 3: think the mindset is because somebody had popped up I
Speaker 3: think on Jackson's feed and was like his mom was
Speaker 3: like some player and was like his mom was like, no,
Speaker 3: he can't go to the NFL right away or whatever
Speaker 3: or NBA right away.
Speaker 2: He has to go to college first. And that was
Speaker 2: the debate.
Speaker 6: I don't want to condition my kids to be workers.
Speaker 6: I just don't.
Speaker 1: I watched the generation before us do that and now
Speaker 1: they're in their late sixties trying to figure out how
Speaker 1: they retire. And then the game is always rigged to
Speaker 1: where you have to retire later and later. So what
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell my kids you retired when you eighty five?
Speaker 1: You know, like, no, I'm not doing that to them.
Speaker 1: I'm going to figure out what your purpose is, son,
Speaker 1: and we can help you figure out a trade or
Speaker 1: something around it to where you can earn if you
Speaker 1: need to earn. But I'm not just going to be
Speaker 1: throwing it on them like you gotta go got it.
Speaker 6: No, I'm not doing that.
Speaker 8: I think your education is key.
Speaker 10: As long as you're teaching them that they that they
Speaker 10: have to keep learning no matter what, no matter where
Speaker 10: they are in life, they'll be all right.
Speaker 6: I agree, I agree.
Speaker 4: I agree with that too. I see I saw a
Speaker 4: instagram real of Von Miller. He owns uh some farms, I.
Speaker 6: Believe the Miller defensive end.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he owns chicken farms, and he learned about he
Speaker 4: took a class in college. Took a class in college,
Speaker 4: and now football might be his sort of like side thing.
Speaker 4: He's making so much money from that chicken chicken farm
Speaker 4: that you know football, which you think football will probably
Speaker 4: be the primary thing that he earns money from. And
Speaker 4: I looked at that and I thought, for me personally,
Speaker 4: you know, when when my daughter gets to the age of,
Speaker 4: you know, considering college, it is an option for her
Speaker 4: that is not something that I think I can force
Speaker 4: on her because I didn't necessarily need college for my trade. Right.
Speaker 4: College was a great thing to help me make connections,
Speaker 4: and a lot of connections that I've made in college
Speaker 4: definitely sustained me from my positioning after school, which was great,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't something that I needed. I was I
Speaker 4: went to school for electrical engineer. I got my degree.
Speaker 4: I never worked a day as an edgucal engineer, but
Speaker 4: a lot of things that I learned there, you know,
Speaker 4: outside of my degree, really helps me still to this day.
Speaker 4: Project management skills.
Speaker 2: Understanding, like even just time management.
Speaker 4: Yeah I left. I mean if I did not go
Speaker 4: to college, I don't think I survived as a business
Speaker 4: owner like period at all. And I still didn't do
Speaker 4: anything that I did in school, like I needed to
Speaker 4: be able to be on my own. I needed to
Speaker 4: be able to manage the task at hand, because you
Speaker 4: don't get that in high school. You still got people
Speaker 4: on you, tell you what you mom's got to wake
Speaker 4: you up, and all this other stuff. So I say
Speaker 4: all that to say, looking at the things that von
Speaker 4: Miller learned and how that set him him up in
Speaker 4: the future, even beyond football, I think I can't knock
Speaker 4: and say college is not for everybody, or college everybody
Speaker 4: needs to go to college. I think there's opportunity that
Speaker 4: you can pick and choose from throughout your life that
Speaker 4: might benefit you in every facet.
Speaker 1: That you go. We need to do a full path,
Speaker 1: a full pod on the college is you know, like,
Speaker 1: we need to do a full pod college.
Speaker 3: Is it's necessary, Yeah, because I think that I know
Speaker 3: so many people with various stories where they went to
Speaker 3: college and then now they're doing random things.
Speaker 8: But then there's the.
Speaker 10: Reasons that I dropped out though, because I was going
Speaker 10: to college with computer science, and when I got to
Speaker 10: my I think fourth or fifty as I might, I'm
Speaker 10: not going to use this. I don't want to use this.
Speaker 10: But I learned a lot on how to operate in college,
Speaker 10: how to talk to people, how to do different things.
Speaker 10: As Josh was just saying, I know I was gonna
Speaker 10: use that. I'm not going to keep paying money and
Speaker 10: going more debt.
Speaker 4: I gonna lie.
Speaker 1: That's how we we talked about this last week. I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, you realize we treated college like the
Speaker 1: game of life. We had our own apartments on college,
Speaker 1: we moved in together. I was making money from playing football.
Speaker 1: I had my sixteen hundred dollars for my meal points.
Speaker 1: She had her stipend from our and we balanced our
Speaker 1: budgets and we we went shopping.
Speaker 6: It was like we learned how to be a family,
Speaker 6: the two of us.
Speaker 1: While in college together, because we utilized our resources to
Speaker 1: get through she didn't have to pay for books because
Speaker 1: I took the same classes she good, so I can
Speaker 1: get my books paid for so that she didn't have
Speaker 1: to pay for it. And then we used the extra
Speaker 1: money to get food and we did things like that.
Speaker 1: It was like college was more than just classes for us.
Speaker 1: College was like practicing life. Yes, when it states and
Speaker 1: you got people around, you know what I'm.
Speaker 10: Saying, when you're in high school going to college, a
Speaker 10: lot of people going to college. I'm pay for college first,
Speaker 10: what is happening?
Speaker 2: Prepare to get out of the college experience? That can
Speaker 2: also be That would.
Speaker 6: Be a great conversation for that.
Speaker 7: That's a really good conversation. Most of us don't get
Speaker 7: what we thought we were going to get out of
Speaker 7: out of that getting a bachelor's degree. I would say college.
Speaker 7: The most it did for me is it taught me
Speaker 7: how to get a job. You know, I will never
Speaker 7: be without a job because I learned the soft skills
Speaker 7: and how to write a resume and how to be
Speaker 7: impressive in an interview and how to like you know,
Speaker 7: make myself look good on paper, and how.
Speaker 6: To catch that's important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but college landed me a husband, Honey, Instagram told.
Speaker 4: You how look nice, I said, Instagram told you how
Speaker 4: to look good at reels?
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, you know, I do what I can.
Speaker 1: I really want to do this full thing on podcasts
Speaker 1: on college college, because now that I have I'm wondering, like,
Speaker 1: even if you don't want to do nothing, you still
Speaker 1: going to college.
Speaker 6: You need to meet some experience, experienced different walks of life.
Speaker 4: But Dad, I don't want to.
Speaker 6: I don't care.
Speaker 8: Those people could be a client going not.
Speaker 2: For THEGI going into anybody's room in the middle of
Speaker 2: the night. Peen and.
Speaker 4: My sons.
Speaker 2: Where are you at now?
Speaker 6: The discipline I used to have to maintain grades. This
Speaker 6: is my thing.
Speaker 1: If you're going to college, I will pay for your
Speaker 1: college degree. You don't even got to get a scholarship,
Speaker 1: but them J G. Pig got to be above three
Speaker 1: point five.
Speaker 2: You don't get that scholarship now.
Speaker 7: For no reason.
Speaker 6: Were you taking the money off of your taking a trade?
Speaker 10: That's what I did. I was I was bsing. I
Speaker 10: ended up going down to community college, took less classes.
Speaker 10: That's ended up in the fifth year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that is out the mond.
Speaker 8: Took less classes so I could go to work. But
Speaker 8: I still had both and was juggling.
Speaker 4: That's but that's that's fine though.
Speaker 8: Yeah, he just asked me. He was like, you dropped
Speaker 8: on your fifth years.
Speaker 4: To me, I dropped out of my fourth and fifty.
Speaker 2: I said the same thing. To I said, maybe even fourth,
Speaker 2: fifth semester for.
Speaker 8: Every year because I started taking school.
Speaker 6: How much? How much credit you got left to graduate?
Speaker 8: Like six? No more than that.
Speaker 10: I went from a regular four years school, took community college.
Speaker 10: So then I took and then I started taking less
Speaker 10: of that.
Speaker 4: The next episode, mat is transcript got to see this ship.
Speaker 4: We need to know.
Speaker 8: I'll show you my W two and stuff I come
Speaker 8: from that. Yeah, tell them I don't need that ship
Speaker 8: from my company.
Speaker 4: I'm good.
Speaker 2: Well, whatever your trade is, make sure you can pay
Speaker 2: some bills, because we have some bills.
Speaker 3: Let's take a quick break and then we're going to
Speaker 3: be back with our Listener Letter episode of the day.
Speaker 3: So stick around, beat our beat. Hey'all, we're back with
Speaker 3: our listener letter episode. Well, our listener Letter of the day,
Speaker 3: rather the listener episode is coming up.
Speaker 2: Hey guys. I absolutely love the podcast and I'm.
Speaker 3: Such a fan of the new addition with Triple Matt
Speaker 3: and josh I need some advice about money man management.
Speaker 3: I actually wrote in before about feeling like my life
Speaker 3: was ending. At twenty five, I went to school for
Speaker 3: broadcast journalism, thinking I was going to be the next
Speaker 3: big thing on Channel twelve news. Then COVID happened Channel
Speaker 3: twelve so long, I definitely interned a News twelve on island.
Speaker 2: Definitely tell you what happened to be a new swellng N.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you last time, all right.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: Then COVID happened.
Speaker 3: Life did a complete three sixty or one eight maybe,
Speaker 3: and I ended up going back to school for ultrasound.
Speaker 3: Well now twenty seven a recent graduate and officially a
Speaker 3: full time ultrasound technician who cue the hand collaps. This
Speaker 3: is the most money I've ever made in my life,
Speaker 3: and honestly, I have no idea where to start when
Speaker 3: it comes to being smart with it.
Speaker 2: There's so much information out there that I'm overwhelmed.
Speaker 3: I don't know who to trust or what advice is
Speaker 3: actually right. I also don't come from a family that's
Speaker 3: great with money. I'm in a very I am very
Speaker 3: in a very grateful and humbling position to still live
Speaker 3: at home, which allows me to save but I'm creeping
Speaker 3: up on thirty, and despite being raised in New York
Speaker 3: and watching everyone else survive, it feels like an ultra.
Speaker 3: It feels like an unreasonable thought to think I can
Speaker 3: afford to live here on my own. The reality is
Speaker 3: I have about seventy K in student loans and fifteen
Speaker 3: k in credit card debt. Moving out right now feels most.
Speaker 2: Ba sorry.
Speaker 3: Moving out right now feels almost non existent as an option.
Speaker 3: I don't want to leave just to struggle harder. I
Speaker 3: hear everyone saying Max ouder Roth, Ira, save for a home,
Speaker 3: start a.
Speaker 2: Business, invest in ETFs.
Speaker 3: I have ten different saving accounts or my favorite one
Speaker 3: is by a duplex and rent out the other side.
Speaker 2: We thought about that when we came home from school.
Speaker 3: I'm over here trying to find a rent stabilized apartment
Speaker 3: for twenty five hundred dollars a month.
Speaker 2: Insane, isn't it?
Speaker 3: It makes you think that I have one hundred and
Speaker 3: sixty k down payment to just drop on a duplex.
Speaker 3: As you can see, it's a lot. I was raised
Speaker 3: by baby boomers who whose main advice is just work harder.
Speaker 3: I'm working hard. I don't have kids, but life still
Speaker 3: feels expensive. I plan to stay home until twenty nine thirty,
Speaker 3: pay off debt, save, and still enjoy my life a little.
Speaker 3: But how do I do that strategically? How do I
Speaker 3: avoid just paying bills to move out just to pay
Speaker 3: more bills? I don't want to live paycheck to paycheck?
Speaker 3: How do I make my money work for me? Do
Speaker 3: I hire a CPA, a financial advisor? If you were
Speaker 3: in my position, first generation high earner, no financial blueprint,
Speaker 3: no family examples of wealth building or comfortable retirement, what
Speaker 3: would you do? And I just want to say, I'm
Speaker 3: one hundred percent grateful for my family. They did the
Speaker 3: best that they could with the information they had. I'm
Speaker 3: the first woman in my bloodline who gives, who gets
Speaker 3: to live life for herself, not tied down by children
Speaker 3: or a husband yet. And I'm deeply grateful to the
Speaker 3: women before me who sacrificed so I could even have
Speaker 3: this choice. So in closing, what should a girl do?
Speaker 3: I don't want to make the wrong moves? Sincerely, a
Speaker 3: girl who should probably call JG Wentworth.
Speaker 4: Seven cash Now.
Speaker 7: That was my aspro's way.
Speaker 8: Too much to you. Oh my god, cash, Now that's
Speaker 8: funny that you put that in there.
Speaker 2: I love that I love.
Speaker 4: This is the first thing.
Speaker 6: Don't move outreat letter, Yeah, don't move out.
Speaker 1: The first thing is if you have seventy thousand dollars
Speaker 1: in student debt and fifteen thousand dollars in credit card debt,
Speaker 1: pay off your debt before you move anywhere.
Speaker 6: There's no reason to move out if you have debt,
Speaker 6: that's number one.
Speaker 1: Number two, if you have a friend or someone that
Speaker 1: you love, or someone that you can trust, don't go
Speaker 1: out there and try to pay all this rent by yourself.
Speaker 1: The easiest way to make it in life is group economics.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to hear this, but it is difficult to
Speaker 1: make it on your own, even if you're a high earner.
Speaker 1: They're saying now in twenty twenty six, in order to
Speaker 1: make what our parents made in the nineties, like six figures,
Speaker 1: you would have to make over a.
Speaker 6: Quarter million dollars. That means living in New York, living
Speaker 6: in New York.
Speaker 1: If you make two hundred and fifty thousand dollars living
Speaker 1: in New York, you're living practically paycheck to paycheck.
Speaker 6: Even if you're considered a high earner, you're still not
Speaker 6: earning high enough to live on your own.
Speaker 1: So we have to get out of our mindsets that
Speaker 1: we could just get a job out of college, run
Speaker 1: to pay rent, and just build a life. It's impossible
Speaker 1: get with some people who think like you. The only
Speaker 1: way I've been able to make anything happen in my
Speaker 1: life is all because of group economics. I will not
Speaker 1: sit here and say it was me by myself. When
Speaker 1: I just got out of the league, I roommate with
Speaker 1: my wife who was my girlfriend at the time, my
Speaker 1: fiance Sharif, his girlfriend, and my brother Brian.
Speaker 6: They were five of us paying two thousand dollars a
Speaker 6: month rent.
Speaker 4: We split that for two years.
Speaker 1: It was four hundred dollars a piece per person, and
Speaker 1: that allowed me to save so that when Sharif and
Speaker 1: his girlfriend moved out, it was me, you and Brian.
Speaker 6: Then when Brian moved out, I had enough money saved.
Speaker 4: It was me and Kay.
Speaker 6: Then Kay didn't have to work because I had enough money,
Speaker 6: everything saved. It was on my own.
Speaker 1: Then that was six years after I retired from the NFL. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I say that because people think it's gonna happen instantly.
Speaker 6: It's just not. You gotta utilize group economics.
Speaker 4: You have to save.
Speaker 1: You have to get rid of all the fat. First,
Speaker 1: get rid of all of your expenses i'm not expenses,
Speaker 1: all of your debt, and then you can start moving forward.
Speaker 2: I think that's great advice. Listen to that. Wonna crunch
Speaker 2: some numbers real quick and tell you what to do
Speaker 2: with it to get about the mud. So I think
Speaker 2: that's great advice.
Speaker 8: That's that s for me.
Speaker 6: That would be the birth the first thing for her.
Speaker 1: And try to at least get to a point where
Speaker 1: you're saving money consistently every month.
Speaker 6: See if you can save if she's a high earner.
Speaker 1: If you get the point where you saving fifteen hundred
Speaker 1: to two thousand a month because you don't have rent
Speaker 1: or you have a roommate. Now you're looking at around
Speaker 1: twenty five K a year, and you say put yourself
Speaker 1: on a five year plan, which is what I did
Speaker 1: with K. I didn't tell K we were going to
Speaker 1: be rich tomorrow. I say, you'll give me five years.
Speaker 1: Twenty five K over five years is one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five thousand. You put twenty percent on a six
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars house, that's one hundred and twenty k.
Speaker 1: You can buy a property, and once you own that property,
Speaker 1: now you can start building wealth. Give yourself a five
Speaker 1: year plan, ma see if you can be disciplined for
Speaker 1: those five years and start your life, then.
Speaker 7: There you go.
Speaker 2: All right, y'all. If you want to be featured as
Speaker 2: a listener letter on a future episode, please be sure
Speaker 2: to email us at the Ellis Advice at gmail dot com.
Speaker 6: That's t H E E L L I S A
Speaker 6: d V I C E at gmail dot com.
Speaker 3: All right, moment of truth. We're talking today getting out
Speaker 3: of the mud. What's your takeaway, babe?
Speaker 1: Oh mother, this is a lot that My biggest thing
Speaker 1: would be is that it's called the mud for a reason.
Speaker 1: Stop expecting it to be glamorous. It's dirty work. It
Speaker 1: takes time, but if you get it out the mud,
Speaker 1: you can carry it a way longer.
Speaker 4: Than if someone just gives it to you.
Speaker 2: Trips, Josh mat put some care and effort in.
Speaker 8: What do you do?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 2: Like a period, let's change them, let's hear them.
Speaker 4: Grit, personability, uh, and it's not a lottery. I think
Speaker 4: those three things a key to success with getting it
Speaker 4: out of the mutt.
Speaker 2: Dope.
Speaker 7: In the words of Angela Davis. Freedom is a constant struggle.
Speaker 7: Even when you get to where you're going, you might
Speaker 7: have somewhere else to be, So keep grinding.
Speaker 2: As a fact. Wow nice, Yeah, Yeah, I think mine is.
Speaker 3: It's cliche for a reason that it takes ten years
Speaker 3: for an overnight success, and I think that rings true
Speaker 3: with anything. So if you do pick up a trade,
Speaker 3: just know that it's going to require a certain level
Speaker 3: of commitment and work to be an actual expert and
Speaker 3: master in your field and craft, and that coupled with
Speaker 3: personality and just the genuine care for whatever it is
Speaker 3: that you're doing with other people and their experience.
Speaker 2: So what that will look like, that's going to be
Speaker 2: the recipe for success for you. So keep on grinding, y'all.
Speaker 2: If you are not following us yet on Patreon, be
Speaker 2: sure to do that.
Speaker 3: We have exclusive Ellis Family content as well as The
Speaker 3: After Show, so sign up for us on Patreon at
Speaker 3: Ellis ever After. You can find us on social media
Speaker 3: at Ellis ever After.
Speaker 2: And I am Kadeen, I am.
Speaker 9: And I am Daval, I'm going to Score Matt Ellis,
Speaker 9: and I'm Joshua Underscore Dwayne, and I'm at.
Speaker 7: Trips the Cool t ri ib v Z The Cool
Speaker 7: on Everything, and if you're listening.
Speaker 1: On Apple Podcasts, be sure to rate, review and subscribe
Speaker 1: and download.
Speaker 4: Thank You, Goodass.
Speaker 7: Ellis ever After is an iHeartMedia podcast. It's hosted by
Speaker 7: Kadeen and Deval Ellis. It's produced by Triple Video, Production
Speaker 7: by Joshua Dwane and Matthew Ellis, video editing by Lashan Roe.
Speaker 3: B B.
Speaker 5: Took a.
Speaker 7: Bad tokon B Bad tog